DENVER — EchoStar Communications Corp.'s planned $25 billion takeover of rival DirecTV should be seen not as creating a satellite television monopoly but rather as boosting competition in the overall pay-TV market, executives said Monday.

        “The government in 1980 set up the direct broadcast spectrum to compete with cable,” EchoStar chairman and CEO Charles Ergen. “Finally, for the first time, the government can see that vision come to fruition with the combination of these companies.”

        Sunday, EchoStar, which runs the Dish Network, announced plans to buy Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV unit from General Motors Corp. If regulators approve, EchoStar would control 91 percent of the U.S. digital satellite TV market and 17 percent of the pay-television market.

        Mr. Ergen estimated the merger would save the combined companies $5 billion a year by 2005.

        EchoStar spokesman Mark Lumpkin in Littleton, Colo., had no breakdown on how the savings would be achieved and declined to address possible job cuts.

        In trading Monday, Hughes shares fell 99 cents, or 6.5 percent, to close at $14.36 on the New York Stock Exchange, where News Corp. stock was off $1.80, or 6 percent, at $27.25 per share.

        EchoStar shares slipped $1.18, or 4.7 percent, to $24.08 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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EchoStar: DirecTV takeover no monopoly